MSO or DSO + Logic Analyzer?

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electro fan
 
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MSO or DSO + Logic Analyzer?

Post by electro fan »

I'm trying to figure out the best way to go: a DSO and a Logic Analyzer or a "MSO".

Is there anyone out there with a Rigol DS1102D or a DS1052D and an Intronix LogicPort who can talk to the relative strengths of the Rigol built-in LA vs. those of the LogicPort? If not, is there anyone out there with a Rigol 1000D series and a LA simlar to the Intronix LogicPort, or an Intronix LogicPort and something similar to a Rigol 1000D series scope?

I'm trying to figure out what I'd be missing with a Rigol 1000D class scope vs. a LA in the Intronix LogicPort class (or vice versa). What I really want is the ability to see the analog wave forms and the digital signals sycnhronized on the same screen. If this can be only done with a "MSO" then so be it. On the other hand, if this can be done with some combination of a scope and seperate LA with some combination of trigger outs and trigger ins, that might be good also.

I just want to figure out a decent entry level to see the relationship between voltage induced sine waves and the corresponding bits. My main use for a while will be Arduino Unos which means relative low clock cycles / low bandwidth requirements. I don't think I will be looking for rare glitches arcoss humongously long periods of time. I think I will be initially working with SPI and I2C so I only need some basic protocol analyzer functions for starters. What I will graduate to next, you folks here have a better idea than me.

Any reason not to just buy a Rigol DS1052D or a DS1102D and get it over with? Or is there some reason to buy a Rigol 2072 and an Intronix LogicPort, or is it a futile to think something useful can be accomplished with less than an Aglient 3000 series MSO, or is there something else along these lines that should be considered?

Thanks for any advice.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: MSO or DSO + Logic Analyzer?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

For the specific application you mentioned, an MSO will probably be the best choice.

You're talking about squeezing as much information as possible out of a small set of pulses. In that setting, the fact that an MSO samples the analog and digital signals on the same timebase and displays them one above each other on the screen is valuable.

The Rigol MSOs would be poor protocol analyzers since they're limited to 1 megasample of memory. The details aren't spelled out in the online specs, but I'm going to assume that two analog traces and 16 channels of logic will cap your sampling window at 256 kilosamples.. about 1/64th of a second at 16MHz. Even analyzing short groups of pulses, you'll probably want to think about using triggering circuits so you sample the exact range of time you're interested in.

If you end up wanting a protocol analyzer, these are very nice:

http://www.adafruit.com/products/378 - 8 channels at 24MHz
http://www.adafruit.com/products/733 - 16 channels at 100MHz

Those pass data to a computer, so you don't face the memory-depth limits the Rigol scopes would impose on you. I just ran a 10 million sample trace on six signals the other day, and didn't come anywhere near pushing the device's limits.

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